Taken
by HR always live on
Summary: Ruth and Harry are together and happier than they thought they could be. However, one morning Ruth is taken from her life and plunged into a nightmare. M rating for mature themes and content appearinng later in this story.
1. Chapter 1

_This is going to get very dark and thats the reason for the M rating..._

Ruth woke up with her face an inch away from Harry's. She smiled feeling happier than she ever had in her life. After a minute she couldn't resist planting a gentle kiss on his sleeping lips. She felt him wake immediately and respond to her touch with a small smile.

"Good morning," Ruth said in a hoarse voice.

"Yes it is," Harry said as his hands slid down to the small of her back and pulled her in for another kiss. A longer kiss. It was interrupted by Ruth's stomach growling hungrily.

"I think that means its time for breakfast," Ruth said with a smile.

"You stay here," Harry said, his eyes glowing at her. "I'll get you breakfast in bed and then I have to go to work." Ruth looked at the clock, shocked to see it was half past nine already.

"As much as I'd love breakfast in bed, I daresay I'm needed on the grid."

"Stay here," Harry murmured before kissing her again. "You didn't get much sleep last night. Plus there's incentive for me to get home quicker if I know you're waiting for me." Ruth smiled and relaxed back in bed, not really wanting to argue with him when she was so comfortable. "I'll be back in five minutes." She closed her eyes and the next thing she knew Harry was dressed and kissing her goodbye.

"I'll see you later," he said.

"Not yet," she replied reaching for another kiss. He smiled and did what she wanted. "I love you," she said as he got to the bedroom door.

"I love you too. Now sleep," he said closing the door behind him. Ruth picked up a slice of rapidly cooling toast and ate it quickly before closing her eyes and drifting off.

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><p>She was woken up several hours before she'd like by the front door banging open. Suddenly on full alert, her spook instincts coming into play she swung her legs out of bed and threw on the first clothes she found on the floor, all the while listening intently. (She didn't think confronting anyone naked was a brilliant idea.) Another bang from downstairs. Starting to panic now, Ruth reached under the bed frame for the knife she knew Harry kept there. A gun would probably be more practical she thought annoyed. She pulled it out and held it out in front of her but didn't feel that protected.<p>

A creak. Someone was coming up the stairs. No. Several someones she corrected herself. Three… no four people coming up the stairs. She'd be no match for them, she knew that much. She needed help. Where was her phone? Last night she had been in such a hurry to strip Harry's clothes off that she couldn't remember where she'd left her mobile. Then she could. It was downstairs on the kitchen table she remembered with a sinking heart. She didn't get any further because at that moment the bedroom door flew open and two men appeared but she knew there were more behind them. They paused when they saw her weapon but not for nearly long enough. They approached her and Ruth swung out with the knife, catching at least one of them from the grunt he gave. She felt a swell of satisfaction which didn't last long as a blow to the head sent stars in front of her eyes. She tried to hang on and keep fighting but all too soon her vision went black.

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><p><em>Please Review!<em>


	2. Chapter 2

"Hi Harry," Dimitri said easily as his boss appeared on the grid. "Where's Ruth?"

"Still in bed," he said with what could only be described as a satisfied smirk, leaving Dimitri in no doubt as to what he meant.

"Why did I ask?" Dimitri said to himself shaking his head. The morning went by in relative peace until Tariq gasped at his computer screen.

"What is it?" Dimitri asked approaching the techie as Beth gathered around the computer screen as well. Tariq didn't reply. All he did was point and hit play on the video which had appeared on the web. Two masked men wearing black from head to foot appeared on the screen.

"This is a message for _Sir_ Harry Pearce," the leader said, barely hiding his sarcasm on the word Sir. "We have no doubt that you will find this video. We also have no doubt that you will want our hostage back and quickly." At this point the camera angle changed and an image of Ruth unconscious came into view. It was definitely her.

"I'm sure at this point we have your full and undivided attention so please listen carefully. I am not in the habit of repeating myself. We want the contents of the government protected file Sparrowhawk. And we want them today. Every hour that you fail to comply with our one and only demand something… unpleasant will happen to your fellow co worker. If co-worker is all that she is. In forty five minutes I will make contact again and tell you how I want to receive the file. Talk to you soon." The video ended in a blur of static. What were they going to do?

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><p>They all had gone into Harry's office to tell him, feeling that there was safety in numbers. The video had been sent to Harry's computer and he watched it feeling the bottom drop out of his world. They had her. He had left her alone this morning to fall into the hands of terrorists and kidnappers. He would never forgive himself if she didn't come out of this.<p>

"What is Sparrowhawk?" Dimitri asked to break the silence.

"It's a file they cannot possibly get there hands on," Harry said quietly. "Whatever the cost. Basically it's a government list of all of this countries weapons, including ones we're not meant to obtain, ones we've stolen and where they're all hidden throughout the country. They cannot get their hands on it."

"So what do we do now?" Tariq asked quietly.

"You pull that video apart," Harry said firmly. "Genuine or not, but I think it is. Who they are, where they're from, what accent that man had. Any hints on the location they're keeping her at all. Keep going until you get something. Dimitri and Beth, you two hack into the CCTV outside my house and see if you can get anything from there. I'm going home. I'll be back soon." Barely pausing he vanished from the grid faster than smoke. In the car he picked up his phone and dialled two numbers. First was Ruth's mobile. He knew she couldn't pick up but he wanted to hear her voice.

"Hi, its Ruth Evershed here. Sorry I can't come to the phone right now but please leave your message after the tone." He closed his eyes briefly, praying that she would be alright at the end of the day. Then he called a different number.

"Malcolm, I need your help."

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><p>Ruth screwed her eyes up tightly as she came to. She felt in a lot of pain and tried to remember what had happened to her. She remembered being hit over the head but nothing more. Looking around her she realised that she was trapped alone in a cold room that looked like some kind of basement. No furniture and she was lying on a cold stone floor. And on top of her muscles aching she was starving. What the hell did they want from her?<p>

_Please review, even if you hate it! xxx_


	3. Chapter 3

_Thanks for the reviews Everyone._

Harry approached his house and swallowed when he saw the door ajar. He slowly went through the house but nothing much was out of place. He walked upstairs with his heart beating extra fast. He didn't know what he wanted to find. Opening the door he swallowed as he saw a lot of his things thrown on the floor haphazardly. Clearly she had struggled when they took her and hadn't gone easily. And then he saw it. A splattering of bright red blood on the carpet and his heart stopped. When it started again he called Tariq.

"Get forensics over to my house immediately. There's blood on the floor and I want it checked against Ruth's," Harry said.

"They're on their way," Tariq said. "Anything else?"

"No. I'll be in soon." Harry hung up the phone and put his head in his hands. No, he couldn't afford to fall apart. Not when she was still in danger and he had no idea of how to get her back. He couldn't give them the file. If nothing else, he had no way to get his hands on it and no one would give it to him, and anyway he wasn't going to hand over a list of every weapon the country had. He had forty minutes before their first hour was up. Twenty five before they made contact again. He couldn't stay here. He left his house and went back to the grid, breaking the speed limit almost constantly.

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><p>Ruth started shivering. It was freezing here and she was starting to wonder when anyone was going to find her. She knew she hadn't been here long but it felt like forever. She wrapped her arms around herself trying to warm herself up when the door of what she had come to think of as her prison cell flew open. She stood up, not wanting to be on the floor when her captors approached her. Three men walked in front of her and she stared at them more bravely than she felt. They didn't say a word and she was shocked when she felt one of them slap her round the face.<p>

"That was for stabbing our friend," one of them said as she put her hand over her stinging cheek. "And your friends better deliver what we want otherwise you'll be praying for a slapped face."

"What do you want?" Ruth asked.

"Sparrowhawk."

"Oh no," Ruth breathed. No one would give that up for her. Which meant she was in serious trouble.

"So you know what Sparrowhawk is?" her kidnapper asked.

"Of course I do. Its my job to know." They looked at her for a few more seconds and then left her alone, locking the door behind them. Ruth closed her eyes and brushed the tears away from her face. She was never going to get out of here. She was never going to see Harry again and her heart ached for him. Why had they wasted all that time? All those years! She kept her eyes closed and focused on how she had felt that morning, wrapped in his arms.

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><p><em>I'll try to get Chapter 4 up at some point later today, fingers crossed.<em>


	4. Chapter 4

Harry came onto the grid and was pleased to see Malcolm back where he belonged. "Hello Harry," he said with a sad look on his face.

"Thanks for coming in," Harry replied.

"Anything for Ruth," he said sincerely. Harry nodded trying to fight away the fear that kept threatening to swallow him. At that moment the phone rang and it seemed to echo loudly in the darkness of his mood.

"Yes," Harry asked picking up the phone and putting it on speaker. He pointed to Tariq to work on a phone trace and voice recognition which Malcolm quickly helped with while Dimitri and Beth watched on silently.

"I trust we have your attention now," a male voice said.

"You certainly do," Harry said with false calm in his voice. "For your own safety you better not have hurt her."

"We'll have no need to once you deliver Sparrowhawk will we?" Harry swallowed. "Have you got the file?"

"I'm working on it," Harry said. "It's a government protected file. Its going to take me longer than forty five minutes to sweet talk politicians into giving it over to me, a section head they aren't entirely sure they trust anyway. I need more time."

"You don't have it," the man said with a sigh. "I warned you what would happen if you couldn't deliver the file. Clearly I'm not being taken seriously. I'll call again soon, you can count on it."

"Wait!" Harry shouted but it was too late. They'd gone. "Well?"

"Encrypted line," Tariq said. "Can't trace it."

"Perfect," Harry said sarcastically.

"Wait a minute," Malcolm said as his mind was whirring. "What if we tried this." Harry ignored them both as they went into a conversation he didn't have a hope of understanding.

"You two, work on the voice recognition," Harry told Beth and Dimitri. "Did you find anything on the CCTV?"

"We caught the reg number of the van they were using but it had been reported stolen a week ago so no leads there," Beth said as Dimitri began typing. "We lose it in the myriad of midmorning traffic. Even with computer tracking you can't find it. We think a couple of cameras had been blown out or purposefully broken. Either way, no joy."

"The call came from London!" Malcolm shouted. "We can't get any closer than that but they are definitely still in the city." Tariq looked particularly annoyed, mainly because Malcolm had proved he was a better computer technician than him. He would not be able to prove it twice, Tariq silently vowed as his typing commenced.

Harry closed his eyes and left them to it. He was in no frame of mind to help and was worried he'd be more of a hindrance. In his office Harry drew the blinds and collapsed in his chair. Somewhere in this city Ruth was being hurt because he couldn't deliver what they wanted. All because of what they both did for a living. He felt sick to his stomach about what they could be doing to her right now. Was she feeling betrayed that he hadn't come for her? She must be so scared. Please God let her be alright. Let her come out of this alive he silently begged.

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><p>Ruth's stomach was gnawing with hunger. She didn't know how long she could keep functioning without any food. But she would have to, she summarised. She had no choice. The door opened again and she stood up once more. It hadn't been that long since they'd last been here.<p>

"Your lover is apparently under the impression that we aren't serious people," one man said as Ruth swallowed uncomfortably. This wasn't good news. "We gave him an hour and nothing yet, even with the warning of what would happen to you." Ruth had started shivering again and she knew it wasn't from the cold this time, it was from fear. But she was damned if she would let them see that she was scared.

Suddenly they moved very quickly. She felt her arms being grabbed and held behind her back while a different man approached her and looked at her as if pondering where it would hurt most. He threw a punch to her abdomen. He had hit her so hard that her legs couldn't support her weight anymore and she buckled, making the next punch glance off of her ribs instead of where it was intended. The men left her and she collapsed onto the floor, curling in on her injured stomach. What Ruth had been unaware of was the fact they had been filming her as she had been hit. And that video was going to be sent straight to Harry Pearce.


	5. Chapter 5

_Right, this is where it starts to get a bit dark. Please remember this is M rated and I'm sorry…_

"Its not her blood," Dimitri said bursting into Harry's office without knocking. There was no point. "We've run it against her records and its not her blood. She must have fought hard when they took her."

"Of course she did," Harry said. "So find out whose blood it is. We might be able to track them down from that." He was speaking in a flat voice without emotion and Dimitri could see how much this was costing him.

"She'll be okay Harry," he told him. "She'll be fine."

"Will she?" Harry asked flatly. "I wish I had your confidence. At least I told her I loved her before I left her this morning," he said to himself. It was almost as if he's forgotten Dimitri was there. "At least I told her that."

"She's not dying," Dimitri said. "We will find her."

"What if we don't?" Harry asked. Before Dimitri could reply his phone rang. Harry picked it up silently. It was Malcolm.

"We've got access to another video," he said in a low voice. "I'm sending it through to you now but its bad."

"Okay," Harry replied looking at his computer terminal. The video started up and Harry was so horrified he actually dropped the phone. "Oh God," he said in a hollow voice as he saw them hitting her. "Oh my God."

"If we do not get what we want by 5pm, we will kill her because we will have no further use for her," was the haunting last words. Harry put his head in his hands, fighting for breath. This was hell. Dimitri had seen the whole thing over Harry's shoulder and he couldn't imagine what his boss was going through. This was awful. Harry switched his computer off. He wondered if those images of Ruth would ever burn themselves out of his mind and closed his eyes in total devastation. Dimitri left him to it and faced everyone else on the grid.

"He's starting to fall apart," Dimitri told them. "We need to give him good news." Malcolm could appreciate that. After all this time, for Harry to finally be with Ruth only to have it taken away from him in such a brutal fashion was unspeakable. Malcolm could not see this ending well and wondered whether this would be the thing that pushed Harry Pearce over the edge in a way nothing else ever had.

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><p>Ruth looked up as the door to her prison cell opened yet again. One man on his own came in. She couldn't get up because of the pain she was in but even if she had she knew she'd be no match for this muscled man. Her eyes flicked up when he leant down towards her with a plate of food which smelt heavenly. But she wasn't fool enough to eat it.<p>

"Come on, you must be hungry," her captor said.

"You should think about that before punching me in the stomach," she replied. "I can't eat anything." That was a lie but her sixth sense told her that the food was drugged.

"Fine," he told her. He pulled a needle from his pocket and leant towards her.

"No!" she shouted scrambling away from him as far as she could in the confined space of the room which wasn't nearly far enough. She struggled as much as she could but she felt the sharp point digging into her arm. "No," she moaned as she felt the drugs slowing her wits almost instantly. This was the second time this had happened to her and that was twice too many. But this time her vision wasn't fading away. She was still conscious, she just couldn't move at all. It took a lot of effort for her to just twitch her finger or mumble the word no. And the smile on his face scared her more than anything in her life had before.

Pure fear filled her as he didn't leave. He came closer to her and it became clear what he was planning. "No," she said as loudly as she could. He kept coming nearer and it came into her mind what he was going to do. What she couldn't stop him from doing. He was going to rape her. She closed her eyes and tried to block out what was happening to her. She never thought she'd pray that Lucas's concoction would be used on her again, but at the moment, obliviousness seemed vastly preferable to total awareness when she couldn't move a muscle. "No," she mumbled again and again. He didn't take a blind bit of notice and she felt her skin crawl as he touched her. She knew he wasn't going to stop.

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><p><em>I'm really sorry! An update later today or tomorow at the latest. If you dont want to kill me can you please leave a review!<em>


	6. Chapter 6

_Quick little update._

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><p>"Got him!" Beth shouted. "Blood belongs to Tarmin Kay, known associate of the Free Islam movement who have recently been focused on gaining more weapons for their stores."<p>

"Great," Malcolm said sincerely. Both he and Tariq were looking for Free Islam strongholds in London. They soon discovered there were four known possible locations which tied in with the information they had from the phone call. Option one was unlikely as it had been stormed last month. The second one was under a busy office block so it didn't look plausible to be hiding an MI5 agent there. Which left two abandoned storage rooms in the back of London warehouses. Tariq went to inform Harry who emerged from his office immediately.

"Dimitri, you're coming with me to the one at the back of the eastside estate," Harry told him. "Beth, arrange for some discreet people to have a look around the other warehouse. I don't want them to be scared off. I want to catch these bastards."

"What makes you sure she's at eastside?" Dimitri asked.

"I'm not," Harry replied. "But I can't sit here and do nothing. I'm taking a fifty fifty gamble. Get the weapons before we leave." Dimitri stared at Harry for a second but saw he wasn't backing down. He didn't argue with his boss and unlocked the guns stored at the back of the grid. Each armed with two handguns they left the grid while Malcolm, Tariq and Beth arranged for backup at both locations.

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><p>Ruth was in agony. She still couldn't move much but she had been left alone, finally. Every muscle in her body was screaming out in pain and it was all she could do to turn her head when the door opened. She was terrified but she couldn't seem to relate the message from her brain to her body which didn't want to move.<p>

"What the hell did you do to her?" one of the kidnappers asked his friend. He seemed to know by the silence and hit his accomplice around the face. "Oh bloody hell, he'll never let us get out of this alive now! You've just signed all of our death warrants! I told you to give her something to make her sleep, not paralyse her. This is important, I warned you to keep your baser instincts to yourself this time. You idiot!"

While they had been arguing Ruth had stretched her foot and was pleased to find that with effort she could move her toes. Whatever she had been given was wearing off slightly. Slowly but surely. But she couldn't concentrate anymore and felt her eyes drifting closed even as she fought to hold on to consciousness. Because clearly her body had had enough.

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><p><em>I'm sorry for putting her through hell! Once this story is finished I'll come up with something much happier.<em>


	7. Chapter 7

_I know I've been horrible but thanks for reviewing everyone._

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><p>Dimitri was driving and Harry had a tense look on his face. "What are you going to do if they're there?" Harry stared at the younger man and it was clear what was on Harry's mind. "You're going to kill them?" he said with only the hint of a question in his voice.<p>

"Yes," Harry said in a calmly detached voice which actually scared Dimitri. How could anyone talk about murder in such a calm voice? It seemed inconceivable to him. But then again they hadn't kidnapped the woman he loved and he knew Harry was going through hell and had been all day.

Soon they stopped outside the building and Harry had a feeling this was the right one. He just knew it. He could sense Ruth was close by. "Be sensible," Dimitri warned. Harry ignored him. Sensible was gone hours ago. Sensible vanished as soon as he saw blood on his bedroom carpet. They slowly opened a side door and saw someone who was clearly standing guard. Dimitri looked at Harry and they silently agreed that Dimitri would deal with him. Which he did silently and quickly. Harry didn't have that much self control left and he knew being quiet was a priority. Dimitri tied the guards hands together and gagged him while Harry listened for all he was worth.

He saw a long corridor with several rooms leading off of it. "We should really wait for back up," Dimitri suggested. He wished he'd stayed silent from the look of ice Harry gave him. "Sh," Dimitri said. They could hear raised voices. Following the noises they saw a door ajar by two inches. There were two men dressed in black shouting at each other. They were so involved that they weren't paying attention to anything else and didn't hear Dimitri and Harry approaching.

Dimitri nodded to Harry and they both barged into the room with their guns at the ready. Very quickly shots rang out in the room. Once they'd fallen to the floor Harry saw her. Ruth was lying on the floor and she looked bad. In fact she looked dead, but he wouldn't think about that. He ran to her and held her face in his hands.

"No," she moaned in a little voice that broke his heart. "No… please."

"Ruth it's me," Harry said quietly. "You're safe now."

"Harry?" she asked quietly, unable to wrap her mind around it. Harry shouldn't be here. But there was something important he needed to know. "Four… There were four of them." Harry glanced at Dimitri who had heard her. They had only seen three of them so he left stealthily to find the missing component. When they were alone he had a good long look at her. She looked terrible.

"Harry, they've… injected me with something. I can't… move much."

"Its okay," he said. "I'll call an ambulance. You'll be okay." He pulled out his mobile and quickly made sure one was on its way. He threw his phone to the floor and gently lifted the hem of the shirt she wore to try and see the damage when she moaned.

"No, please don't touch me," she begged quietly.

"Okay," he said quickly to try and comfort her. "Okay," he said again. He stroked her face and she frowned away from his touch.

"Leave me alone," she said. Unable to move properly she shuffled away from him as much as her aching body would allow her to. Harry was starting to really worry about her now. She had never backed away from his touch. Not once, but now she was and that terrified him. A possibility came into his mind. A horrible possibility which he was silently praying wasn't true.

"Ruth, I won't touch you," he reassured her. "But I need to know what they've done to you. I need you to tell me, can you do that?"

"Hit my stomach and ribs," she said in one breath. She didn't want to tell him what else they'd done to her but knew she didn't have a choice as his eyes settled on hers. There was no room for lies between them ever, but at a time like this he read more in her blue eyes than he ever wanted to.

"Did they…?" Harry couldn't bring himself to say it. Almost like if he didn't say it, it couldn't be true. She knew what he was asking her.

"Yes," she said in a lifeless voice, hating that she had to tell him this. But she couldn't lie to him or hide the truth.

"Oh Ruth," he said, his voice filled with eternal sadness. He desperately wanted to hold her and comfort her but he wondered if that would do more harm than good. "Let me help you to sit up. If that's okay." Ruth nodded once and let him help her which took a while because she couldn't move properly. She groaned as her weight moved against her bruised ribs.

"You found me then," she said in a quiet voice.

"Of course I did," he replied. "I wasn't going to leave you here alone." He carefully and gently brushed her hair behind her ear and she didn't object. He didn't leave her side at all and was relieved when he heard another gunshot. He knew Dimitri was coming back from the sound of the footsteps. Dimitri's footfall couldn't be mistaken.

"The ambulance is just outside," Dimitri said, his head poking around the doorframe. God she looked awful, he thought. He couldn't imagine what Harry was going through, looking at her was hard just for him, and he wasn't in love with her.

"They're going to have to bring a stretcher in here Dimitri," Harry said. "She can't walk. They've given her drugs of some description and she can't move properly." Dimitri nodded and kicked the two bodies in the doorframe out of the way so the paramedics could get to Ruth more easily.


	8. Chapter 8

In the ambulance Harry was holding Ruth's hand tightly. The paramedics had put her under sedation because she wouldn't let them touch her otherwise and it was clear she was in a lot of pain and needed treatment. She seemed to be suffering under the delusion that she was still captive which was probably a result of the concoction of drugs they'd given her. Once she was given a sedative the paramedic lifted her shirt and saw a large patch of mottled bruising on her stomach and her rib cage. It was red at the moment but Harry knew it would turn purple within a few days. He hoped she didn't have internal bleeding.

"What happened to her?" the female paramedic asked her as she hang up a bag of liquid to rehydrate her.

"She was kidnapped and she's been beaten up," Harry said not taking his eyes off of her face. "I think she's been raped as well." It was hard to say that last sentence but he didn't loosen his grip on her hand, even though he knew he was getting in the paramedics way. He didn't care. He had left her this morning alone and defenceless and he would never leave her alone again. He would never let this happen again.

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><p>At the hospital Ruth had been torn away from him and he was out of his mind with worry. He knew she was in the best possible place for her but that didn't help him much. Through sheer irritation he called Beth who was still on the grid.<p>

"How is she?" Beth asked before even saying hello.

"I don't know," he said. "She's having scans and they won't let me see her just yet. What happened at the warehouse?"

"Two of the kidnappers were dead on impact. The men you shot. The guy Dimitri shot just had minor injuries. He was aiming to maim rather than kill." _Unlike_ _you _were the unspoken words. But he was not in the mood for recrimination. Another thought occurred to him. Ruth's rapist might still be alive. If he was he wouldn't be for much longer.

"Beth, can you send me photographs of the both dead men and the ones who are still alive," Harry asked.

"Why?"

"Just do it, please." Beth sighed, knowing she had no other option.

"Fine, they're on their way."

"Thank you," Harry said sincerely. He saw a doctor approaching him with a concerned look on his face. "Gotta go Beth, send me those pictures." He didn't wait for her to reply and switched the phone off.

"How is she?" Harry asked immediately.

"Are you her family?" he asked irritatingly.

"I'm her husband," he lied, knowing that Ruth wouldn't mind in this instance and hoping that she wanted to see him.

"We've done an MRI and a CT to see in more detail what's happening with her injuries and the good news is she isn't bleeding internally and she hasn't broken any ribs which was another concern of ours. She'll be really sore for a few weeks but it'll be fine."

"That's good," Harry said letting out the breath he had been holding. "That's really good news. What about the paralytic she was given? Has that worn off?"

"Yes. She's still asleep but its definitely worn off. It wasn't anything too bad, but the mixture of drugs she was given is what made her react so seriously. And I have bad news. Our gynaecologist has examined her and you were right. She has been raped." Harry closed his eyes and collapsed onto the chair behind him. He simple couldn't stand up anymore. A minute later he looked up and the doctor was still there.

"Can I see her?" he asked in a broken voice. The doctor nodded and Harry got unsteadily to his feet, following him through the hospital corridors. Soon he opened the door to Ruth's room and she was awake.

"Hi," Harry said sitting next to her, happy that they were left alone. She had a whisper of a smile on her face. It was brief but it was there, accompanied by the haunting fear in her eyes. He stopped himself from his normal reaction which would be to kiss her. He didn't know if that was too much for her right now.

"Thank you for getting me out of there," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't quick enough," he replied with true sorrow clouding his eyes. She shifted in the bed to get closer to him and then winced as her weight fell on her bruised ribs. He reached a hand out for her shoulder automatically and she pushed him away almost before she realised it.

"Sorry," she said.

"Don't you dare," he said in a quiet and menacing voice. "Don't you apologise for what that monster did to you. It is not your fault."

"Okay," she said in a small voice. "Can you do me a favour?"

"Anything," he said sincerely and eagerly.

"Come here," she asked. He approached her warily and Ruth put a hand behind his head, pulling him in for a brief kiss. Just a small touch of lips really. "I thought I was never going to see you again. When I realised what they wanted, I thought I was going to die." He stroked a hand through her hair softly and she liked his touch.

"I need to ask you something," he said with a sigh. "Its not going to be easy but I have to know." He switched his phone back on, relieved to see Beth had sent the pictures to him. "I need to know who did this to you." He silently passed her the phone and she flicked through the images with a pale face. She stopped on one and silently handed it back to him. Harry looked at the photo and was pleased to see she had stopped on one of the men whom he had shot dead.

"I'm sorry," Harry said, putting his phone away.

"Can you do something to get me out of here? I just want to go home and sleep for about a year." He looked at her and saw her face beginning to crumble. She was trying to keep herself together in one piece.

"Of course I will. I'll be back soon." She nodded and he squeezed her hand in a silent goodbye. Once he had left her hospital room he faced the wall, bracing his arms against it. He took several deep and shaky breaths with his eyes closed. He couldn't fall apart in front of her but holding it together for any longer was more than he could stand. The minutes rolled by and he found the strength to stand up straight. Brushing his tears impatiently aside to see if he could get Ruth discharged.

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><p><em>At least two more chapters, probably three. Please review. xxx<em>


	9. Chapter 9

Harry had called into the grid and been filled in with everything that was going on. Nothing desperate and he had warned them not to call unless absolutely necessary. He wanted to be with Ruth even if it was going to be awkward and uncomfortable. Which, lets face it, was probably the only possibility. He was driving them to her house and her eyes had gone dead and lifeless in the silence. He could tell she was thinking over everything that had happened to her and it was taking her to a very bad place.

He pulled up outside her house and turned the engine off. He looked at her and she was staring at her hands. "Let me take you inside," Harry said. She nodded but didn't look at him. She opened her car door and walked up to her front door, Harry standing very close to her, but not touching her. Ruth walked into her kitchen and picked up an apple. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had anything to eat. Harry stood watching her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Of course I'm not bloody alright!" she shouted. "How on earth could I possibly be alright?" She took a deep breath while Harry stayed silent. "I'm sorry, I know its not your fault." She sighed and walked in front of him and leant into his chest, his arms carefully wrapping around her "I'm just so angry," she whispered as her tears started to stain his shirt. Her entire body was shaking with the tears she had finally let loose. He could tell that she had been trying to hold herself together at the hospital and now she didn't have to anymore, it was all falling apart for her.

"I couldn't fight him off," she mumbled through her tears. "I couldn't move. All I could do was watch while I knew what was going to happen and I couldn't stop it. Oh God!" She fell into a fresh wave of tears as Harry kept supporting her weight. She had leant into him completely now and he swallowed trying to fight off those horribly vivid images that her words had brought to mind. Time passed in the silence and her tears eventually subsided.

"What can I do for you?" Harry asked, needing to do something. "Do you want to eat? Something to drink? Bath?"

"A bath would be wonderful," she said nodding gratefully. Harry forced a smile and started to lean in to kiss her when he thought better of it. She saw what flickered through his mind but she didn't say anything as he left to start running her bath. He turned the taps on and then had a quick ferret around the bathroom, collecting all the razors he could find. He didn't think she would try anything stupid but it was just in case. He'd be in hell if she did slit her wrists because he hadn't done something so simple as take the razors out of her reach. Then he wondered if he was just thinking of the worst case scenarios. Ruth was too sensible to try and slit her wrists. Wasn't she? Sighing, Harry picked up the razors and turned the taps off, leaving to get Ruth who was eating in the kitchen.

"I'll be right here if you need me," Harry said quietly. Ruth nodded and went upstairs, silently thanking God that Harry was in her life like this. He was making a hellish situation much better simply by being there. She quickly got into the bath and started scrubbing every inch of her skin until it glowed pink. She even scrubbed the bruises she had on her stomach and ribs ignoring the fact that it hurt like hell, needing to feel clean. When she had finished she turned the hot water tap on to heat herself up again and dipped her head under the water level to wash the filth of this horrible day out of her hair.

Eventually she got to her feet and let the water drain off of her, patting her skin dry on a towel. She approached the mirror which was steamed up and looked at her reflection in its blurriest form. She looked down at the sink and swiped her hand across the condensation. It took a lot of time for her to get the courage to look up at her reflection. When she did she looked down after two seconds. Then she tried it again and managed five. She took a deep shaky breath and had another go, her hands pulling her wet hair out of her face. She stayed there until there was a light knock on the bathroom door.

"Are you okay?" Harry's voice said through the door.

"Mm," Ruth replied, knowing he was worried about her. "I'll be out in a minute."

"Take your time," Harry replied. Ruth took another deep breath and wrapped herself in her dressing gown which was hanging on the back of the bathroom door. She tied it tightly and for the first time since she was kidnapped she felt a little better. She opened the bathroom door and saw Harry looking at her with an anxious look on his face.

"I feel better for that," she told him.

"Good." He sighed and then started speaking quickly. "I want to stay here with you but if you don't want me here or if you want to be alone, I completely understand."

"No, no. I want you here," she said quietly with such sincerity that he was convinced this was what she needed. Gingerly, because of her ribs she sat down on bed and closed her eyes for a second.

"Do you need anything?" Harry asked.

"Can I have your shirt?" she asked looking down at her hands. "I… I want to sleep in it if that's okay."

"Yeah," Harry said, surprised by her request. He quickly unbuttoned it and passed it to her. She turned her back to him, not wanting her body to be displayed to him yet. As she slipped it on and made sure all the buttons were done up, covering her body, she crawled into bed. She took a deep breath, inhaling Harry's scent which was permeating her skin from his shirt. She felt… safe and it was a long time since she had had that feeling.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to get into bed next to me?" Ruth asked with such an appearance of normality that Harry was taken aback for a moment. Slowly, so he wouldn't scare her, he sat down on top of the duvet and looked at her carefully. Eventually she ended up being wrapped in his arms as she fell asleep, with the duvet providing a barrier between their bodies. A barrier which Ruth needed. She wanted to be held by him, truly she did but skin contact was just too much for her right now. Even though she was bone tired it took a long time for her to let go of her fear and tension for long enough to fall asleep.

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><p><em>I had trouble deciding where to finish this chapter with the result that the next one is quite short. Sorry it took me a while longer to post. Work getting in the way of my fiction writing! Please review. xxx<em>


	10. Chapter 10

_Just a quick little update before I go to sleep..._

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><p>Harry watched her sleep with unbearable sadness. How could someone do that to her? He very carefully ran a hand through her tangled hair, his hand ending up cupping her face lightly. "Oh Ruth," he whispered. If he had known that leaving her alone this morning would lead to this… His worry and concern over her, combined with hatred for the monster who had done this to her made him unable to get any sleep that night.<p>

He was still staring at her in the morning light when she stirred, beginning to wake up. He was pleased to see that she had slept through the entire night without waking once. She had needed some rest.

"Morning," he said as her eyes flicked open. She had a faint smile on her face and then he saw the moment it happened. The memories of yesterday came back to her and were haunting her eyes.

"You didn't get any sleep did you?" Ruth asked, inching slightly closer to him.

"No," he told her. "I wanted someone to be watching over you so you felt safe. I wasn't going to fall asleep." Ruth nodded and moved to kiss him lightly. He was very careful with her, letting her dictate the pace of their embrace. Her tongue danced against his lips and he opened his mouth slowly to her touch. He put his hands on her back and pulled her against his chest. He pulled her closer still and her breasts touched him lightly but she didn't seem to mind. Their tender good morning kiss lasted for about a minute more until Ruth drew away from him.

"That's enough," she whispered. Harry nodded and loosened his grip on her back and stroked her face lightly.

"Okay," Harry said, glad that she trusted him enough to tell him that. She sighed and looked at her clock. It was eight in the morning. She had slept more than she thought she would.

"Shouldn't you be on your way to the grid by now?" Ruth asked.

"No," Harry told her. "You're not going in to Thames House and I'm not leaving you alone."

"You should go," Ruth said in a quiet voice that broke his heart.

"I will if you want me to," he replied. "I understand if you want me to go. If you want to be alone."

"No, Harry," she said quickly. "I don't want you to go. But I know that you have things to do and life goes on."

"Ruth…"

"Go," she replied with a false smile. Harry sighed and reached for the gun he still had with him after yesterdays events. He made sure it was reloaded and passed it to her. "Thank you."

"I'm going to have someone watching over the house and I will be back to check on you at some point today. I promise. Call if you need anything," Harry said. Ruth nodded. He was going to say goodbye in his normal way which was to kiss her when he thought better of it. Ruth sighed and moved to kiss him herself. It was light and brief but she wanted to touch him. "I love you," he told her.

"I know," she said. She watched him go and waited until she heard the car drive away before she got up and ran downstairs making doubly sure the door was locked. She stood there for a while until she decided to move and get dressed.

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><p><em>One more chapter to go. It's written but I'm nervous about it so it needs a few more tweaks. Please review! xxx<em>


	11. Chapter 11

_Several weeks later…_

"Stop it," Ruth said quietly. She was lying in bed wrapped in Harry's arms and he was holding her so gently and softly it was actually making her nervous.

"Stop what?" he asked as she moved to face him.

"Stop treating me like I might break at any moment. I'm not going to break and I'm not going to fall apart."

"I can't help it," Harry said honestly as a hand drifted through her hair. "I don't know…" he tailed off not knowing quite how to say what he wanted to. He was encouraged by Ruth's hand resting lightly on his bare chest directly over his heart. "I don't know how to behave around you anymore. I don't want to scare you or hurt you. I would be devastated if I made you feel anything like how you felt that day and I know you're going through something I can't begin to understand."

"Do you still want me?" Ruth asked bluntly.

"Of course I do," he said almost instantly. "I just… I don't want you to feel like I'm raping you." He had stopped looking at her but she waited until he faced her again.

"Oh, Harry, you won't make me feel like that. I want you," she said simply as a hand crept up to his face. "I just want you to hold me and touch me the way you did before any of these horrible things happened to me."

"Are you sure?" he asked. She nodded and there was such a naked truth held in her eyes that he knew she needed this. She needed him to be there for her. "Promise me that you'll tell me to stop if you need to," he said.

"I won't need you too," she said. "But of course I will," she added at the look on his face. She made the first move and reached upwards to kiss him. He was so reserved that she was becoming quickly infuriated. She leant away from him with a raised eyebrow and he rolled his eyes knowing what she wanted. He kissed her again, pushing her gently onto her back. His hand slipped under his shirt which Ruth always wore to sleep in and settled on her waist.

Ruth reached for him and pulled him closer to her, resulting in a more intense kiss. This felt good, the detached part of her brain thought. It felt right. She felt one of her shirt buttons come undone and she stiffened for a second. She relaxed almost immediately but Harry had caught it. His face was clouded with worry which didn't lessen when she moved to kiss him.

"Please don't stop," she begged quietly. Against his better judgement he listened to her and undid another shirt button while his lips were on hers. Slowly he slid his hand under the fabric and touched her breast lightly. She gasped but he was pleased to hear that noise from her because that meant she was enjoying herself. He kept caressing her skin softly with both his hands as she kissed him eagerly. This was exactly what she wanted from him and she loved him so much for trying to give it to her. She knew this was difficult for him. Quickly his mouth replaced his fingertips and she sighed with contentment as his tongue danced against her flesh. Her hand slid down his body and reached between his legs. She could feel his hardness and ran her fingertips slowly over him as her eyes bored into his.

"I need you," she whispered. He nodded once and held her hips tightly as he entered her, so slowly. Being so careful with her. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him further inside her, making a tiny satisfied sound as he filled her completely. He was removing the touch of her rapist from her body and her mind and it felt good. There was nothing big or showy about the way they made love. It was the quiet and gentle rediscovery of each others bodies. It wasn't a heady passion, it was a total trust between two people who loved each other more than life itself. She didn't climax, he was treating her too carefully and moving too slowly for that. But that wasn't the point of this. That wasn't why she needed him to make love to her. He was reminding her of what it was to be touched intimately by someone who loved her, rather than someone who wanted to hurt and humiliate her.

Ruth ended up lying in the remnants of Harry's shirt, her head nestled close to him. "Thank you," she whispered sincerely. She had needed him to touch her like that. "I know that wasn't easy for you."

"Did I hurt you?" he asked still concerned over her.

"Harry, you know you didn't," she said quietly and kissed his collarbone. "I love you." She slipped his shirt back on over her nakedness and promptly fell asleep with her head resting on his chest. He watched her sleeping face with unaccountable sadness. He still couldn't believe someone had done that to her. When he thought of someone forcing her, having sex with her against her will… He couldn't think about it because it made him want to punch something which wasn't ideal when Ruth was lying in his arms. Thinking over that he couldn't stop the tears from falling. He fought hard to stop from making any noise because he didn't want to wake her. The tears were still damp on his cheeks when hours later he drifted off to sleep.

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><p><em>Very nervous about this last chapter. What do you think?<em>


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